The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Expansion draft list out, Vegas holds all the cards
Vegas Golden Knights general manager George McPhee will have a high-profile group of players on the league’s expansion list that he can choose from to stock the Golden Knights roster.
Vegas Golden Knights general manager George McPhee had difficulty containing his excitement in anticipation of the NHL’s expansion draft list being released.
“The most fun I’ve ever had in hockey,” McPhee said in a video posted of him driving to the team’s headquarters on Sunday.
And that was before McPhee learned of the highprofile group of players he’ll have to choose from — limited to one from each of the 30 teams — in stocking the Golden Knights roster before submitting his list on Wednesday.
There’s a three-time Stanley Cup champion goalie in Pittsburgh’s Marc-Andre Fleury available and several 20-plus-goal-scorers in Nashville’s James Neal and Minnesota’s Eric Staal. As there’s a number of top defensemen exposed such as Anaheim’s Sami Vatanen and Ottawa’s Marc Methot.
“The issue for us isn’t going to be, ‘Can we fill out the roster?”’ McPhee told reporters after the list was released. “It would be, ‘Do we have too many players?’ There are a lot of good players there.”
Vegas is holding all the cards while the rest of the NHL comes to a full stop in awaiting McPhee to determine his selections over a three-day stretch during which the Golden Knights are the only team allowed to make trades and sign pending free agents.
McPhee wasn’t prepared to discuss individual players when specifically asked about Fleury, but noted there were no surprises based on the numerous mock drafts the Golden Knights conducted over the past few months. The one thing that didn’t materialize was a large number of trades happening involving players teams didn’t want to expose.
That benefits the Golden Knights because it maintained a deeper pool of talent available.
“We really like what we’re looking at right now,” McPhee said. “We expect to put a good, entertaining club on the ice.”
Fleury was left unprotected by Pittsburgh after he agreed to waive the nomovement clause in his contract. The Penguins instead protected Matt Murray a week after the second-year goalie led them to win their second consecutive championship.
Vatanen, who will miss the start of the season after having shoulder surgery, and Josh Manson were the odd men out in Anaheim, because the Ducks couldn’t protect their all their talented core of defensemen.
The Predators were put in a bind in being forced to expose Neal, a 10-time 20-goal-scorer, because they elected to protect a fourth defenseman.
Other notable forwards left unprotected were Los Angeles’s Dustin Brown, Montreal’s Tomas Plekanec and Pittsburgh’s Chris Kunitz. As for defensemen, Minnesota exposed both Matt Dumba and Marco Scandella, while Buffalo’s Zach Bogosian and Dallas’ Dan Hamhuis are also available.
There’s also a wealth of proven goaltenders available given that teams were required to expose at least one. Aside from Fleury, other goalies available are Florida’s Roberto Luongo, Detroit’s Petr Mrazek and Philadelphia’s Michal Neuvirth.
Salary cap set
The NHL salary cap has been set at $75 million for this season in a slight increase over last year.
The league and NHL Players’ Association announced the cap and the salary floor of $55.4 million in a joint statement. The figures are set by the league’s hockey-related revenue.
It’s an increase of $2 million from the $73 million cap last season, as players elected to use their escalator clause to raise it.